Various approaches have been taken to messaging. Voice, video, and fax communications through telecommunications systems are well-known, as are email communications through computer networks. Many attempts have been made to integrate traditional telecommunications with computer networks.
For instance, fax software allows computer users to easily convert digital files into fax format and send faxes directly from a computer. Computer telephony software allows computer users to maintain a database of telephone numbers and to have their computer dial a selected number for subsequent voice communications. Internet telephony software allows computer users to transmit voice communications over the Internet as digital packets (similar to the transmission of email messages in digital packets). Computerized advertising systems exist which automatically dial a sequence of telephone numbers and attempt to deliver a recorded message to each recipient.
Telecommunications systems themselves also rely heavily on computers to manage circuits, voicemail boxes, accounting, billing, and other functions. Likewise, computer networks often use the telecommunications infrastructure to carry digital packets, over Internet dial-up connections, direct modem-to-modem connections, and other telecommunications connections.
A messaging service which is advertised and described at a jfax web site apparently operates as follows. (Because USPTO policy prohibits inclusion of hyperlinks in patents, the jfax web site address is not stated expressly here. However, the jfax web site address can be produced by typing “www” followed by a period followed by “jfax” followed by a period followed by “com”. To conform with USPTO policy, other web site addresses noted below are likewise restated using “period” instead of being stated expressly.) The service provider provides each subscriber with a special-purpose “private” telephone/fax number in a city specified by the subscriber. The “private” number is apparently not a number published to assist voice communications, that is, it is not typically listed in white pages or other telephone directories or available through directory service. This private number can be used to provide subscribers with access by phone to their email messages. When the subscriber calls in, the subscriber's email messages are read to the subscriber over the phone using synthesized speech after the system connects to the subscriber's Internet service provider. Voicemail can also be accessed using the same private phone number. By dialing a toll-free access number and entering an access code, subscribers can apparently send email to any fax machine, reply to email with a voice message, and manage their messages. The provider links the unique private phone number to email in order to route the subscriber's voicemail and faxes to email. If the subscriber has access to a computer, then the subscriber can play voicemail on the computer's speakers and display faxes on the computer's screen. Subscribers must apparently download special-purpose software to their computers in order to access (as email message attachments) faxes or voicemail sent to their private phone number. In short, a private telephone number can be used to access email messages which were apparently addressed using conventional email addresses, and voice or fax messages can be converted to email attachments.
A voicemail messaging service is also discussed in “Address Resolution for Voicemail Systems: X.500 Methodology”, which was obtained from the Electronic Messaging Association web site at www period ema period com/vpimdir/directory/method.txt. The Address Resolution document and other documents in www period ema period org/vpimdir refer to and/or describe a Voice Profile for Internet Mail (VPIM) specification. These documents, including Internet Engineering Task Force drafts on topics such as VPIM Addressing and Goals for VPIM, and papers on Voice Messaging Directories, Multi-Media Shared Directories, and other topics, are collectively referred to herein as the “VPIM Documents” and are incorporated by this reference. The voicemail messaging systems described in the VPIM Documents would apparently operate in ways which are consistent with the details described below.
In some cases, voicemail messages would be encoded by VPIM systems as *.wav files or otherwise encoded as digital files, and would be sent as attachments to an email message. Fax messages would likewise be transmitted as email attachments.
Various VPIM email addressing schemes are described, but they appear to be of two types. The first addressing scheme includes addresses of the form LHS@Domain, where LHS is a telecommunications number and Domain is an Internet domain name. Examples given in the VPIM Addressing document include:                1) mailbox number—for use as a private numbering plan (any number of digits).        e.g. 5552722@lucent.com;        2) mailbox number+extension—for use as a private numbering plan with extensions any number of digits, use of “+” as separator. e.g. 5552722+111@lucent.com;        3) +international number—for international telephone numbers conforming to E.164 maximum of 15 digits.        e.g. +16137637582@nortelnetworks.com;        4) +international number+extension—for international telephone numbers conforming to E.164 maximum of 15 digits, with an extension (e.g. behind a PBX) that has a maximum of 15 digits.        e.g. +17035245550+230@ema.org;        
The second addressing scheme includes attribute-value pairs with special attributes such as a VPIM attribute and/or a voice outdialing service selector attribute. Example pairs given in the VPIM Addressing document include VPIM=6137637582 and VOICE=+3940226338.
An email to pager gateway described at www period inconnect period com/pager.html takes an email message and sends it to an alphanumeric pager. Messages must be sent to a specially formatted address:
abc1234567@pager.inconnect.com
where abc is the page provider code (e.g. “att” for AT&T Wireless or “sky” for SkyTel) and 1234567 is the pager's PIN number.
A wide range of message routing features and capabilities have thus been explored before now, at least to some extent. However, known approaches have not combined features and capabilities into an architecture which properly leverages the existing widespread use of telephone and fax numbers with the capabilities of email and databases.
In particular, the jfax approach uses new, private telephone numbers to allow access to email, rather than allowing the use of existing telephone numbers as email addresses. The VPIM approach does use existing phone and fax numbers in email addresses, but it imposes an awkward addressing syntax on message originators. VPIM is also apparently directed toward the use of email systems to carry voicemail recordings, as opposed to using phone and fax numbers to identify email destinations. Accordingly, it would be an advancement in the art to provide an improved architecture for routing messages using the enormous existing body of telecommunications numbers and features, including pay-per-use features and options.